유가증권시장과 코스닥시장에 상장된 법인은 2000 회계연도부터 분기보고서를 작성하여 공시하여야 한다. 그러나 분기보고서에 대해서는 2008년 현재 직전연도말의 자산규모가 5천억원(2003년까지는 2조원)이상인 기업에 대해서만 외부감사인에 의한 검토가 강제로 시행되기 때문에 검토를 받지 않는 분기재무정보의 신뢰성에 대해서는 의문이 제기되어 왔다.
본 연구에서는 유가증권시장에 상장된 기업 중에서 자발적으로 외부감사인의 검토를 받은 기업들을 표본으로 하여 해당 기업들의 특성에 대한 실증분석을 수행하였다.
실증분석결과, 총자산 대비 금융기관 차입금의 비중이 클수록 자발적으로 외부감사인의 분기검토를 받고 있다는 결과를 나타내고 있다. 또한 경영자지분율과 자발적 분기검토 사이에는 부(-)의 관계가 존재함을 확인하였지만 유의적인 관계를 보이고 있지는 않았다. 그리고 외부감사인이 Big4 감사인일수록, 총자산 대비 재고자산과 매출채권의 비중이 높을수록 자발적으로 분기검토를 받는 경향을 보였다.
본 연구의 결과가 의미하는 바는 다음과 같다.
첫째, 주주 및 경영자와 채권자의 대리인 문제가 중요한 상황에서는 기업들이 채권자의 monitoring 수요에 대응하여 자발적으로 분기검토를 받고 있음을 의미한다. 둘째, 회계법인의 명성(reputation)이 높아 분기검토를 받음으로 인한 한계효익, 즉 회계정보 신뢰성의 제고 정도가 높은 경우 자발적으로 분기검토를 받을 가능성이 높다고 해석된다. 셋째, 매출채권과 재고자산의 비중이 높은 기업의 경우에는 매출채권과 재고자산의 조작을 통한 이익조정을 하고 있지 않다는 신호(signal)를 투자자 및 채권자 혹은 이해관계자에게 보내기 위해 자발적으로 분기검토를 받는 것으로 보인다.All the listed companies are required to submit the quarterly financial statements since 2000. However, unlike the biannual and annual financial statements, attestation of the quarterly financial statements are required only for the firms with asset size over a half trillion won. For this reason, the reliability of the quarterly financial statements has been questioned.
This study investigates the characteristics of the firms voluntarily reviewed by an auditor even though not mandated.
This study examines whether the firm receives the review voluntarily since it resolves the agency problem between the shareholders and creditors and at the same time signals the reliability of the financial statements to the interested parties. Also, shareholding by management, and relative loan ratio are used to account for the voluntary review. Big 4 accounting firm, accounts receivable and inventory level relative to the asset size have been used as a proxy for measuring benefit and cost of the voluntary review of the quarterly financial statements.
Several studies have examined the earnings management and the increase in the valuation of quarterly financial statements related to the review of the financial statements. However, this study focuses on the factors inducing the firms to voluntarily review the financial statements. The causes for the need to enhance the reliability through review are investigated. Specifically, this study broadens our understanding of the basic foundation of review, audit and attestation.
This study tests the following hypotheses to show the characteristics of the firms voluntarily reviewing financial statements.
First, shareholding by management is assumed to be negatively correlated with the probability for voluntary review. This test is to examine whether the agency problem between the shareholder and management affects the voluntary review of financial statements.
The second hypothesis tests whether the firms with the high level of loan from financial institution are more likely to be voluntarily reviewed. This hypothesis tests whether the creditors of firms with high level of debt tend to monitor more heavily using the voluntary review.
The third hypothesis tests whether the firms audited by the Big4 accounting firms are more likely to be reviewed voluntarily. This is due to the fact that the enhancement of the quality of the accounting information is higher for Big4 accounting firms than for non-Big4. Therefore, the benefit from the voluntary review is higher in case of Big4.
The fourth hypothesis tests whether the firms with the high level of accounts receivables and inventory relative to the total assets are likely to be voluntarily reviewed. These two accounts are often related to the accounting fraud problem, and accordingly auditors ask for a high risk premium for the firms with high level of accounts receivable and inventory. For these firms, the cost for attestation will increase and it's investigated how this factor affects the voluntary review of financial statement.
Empirical results show an evidence indicating that firms with large loan from the financial institutions are more likely to be voluntarily reviewed. Also, negative relation between the shareholding by current management and the fact of voluntary review is found but not significant. Big4 accounting firm, and a high percentage of inventory and accounts receivables level show a positive relation with the voluntary review.